What Scares You?

[MeechMunchie]

Having Googled trypophobia, it actually heavily resembles a haunting dream I once had where I contracted such a condition (probably brought on by reading too much Nurgle background late at night). I wouldn't say the dream was scary per se, but I never forgot it.

So now, if Dyna pisses me off, I know I can just recite the events of that dream and he'll go away.

Yes. Granted, it does a good job creating a creepy vibe but this nonsense people spout about it being the most ball-shiveringly terrifying feat of modern horror need to take a seat.

Name me a scarier game. Any example is fine.

[Dynamithix]

Don't piss off MM? Check.

Also, I had a dream a while back (2 - 3 months ago) about a game I'm pretty sure I have played on the original Xbox when I was a lot younger. It was really surreal and creepy.

I actually kept a little dream log back then writing down what I remembered of my dreams. It was fun, now I can read 'em and remember them pretty clearly. I know, it sounds strange, but anyways, the dream went a bit like this:

- I wake up in a large cottage, there's two floors in it (possibly a basement)
- I hear noises from the next room, a man and a woman probably
- I look in the room and there are two ugly junkies making food out of people
- The woman sees me (or my character) and the man recognizes me
- Both start talking yet they don't react
- I close the doors to upstairs and go downstairs, only to find blood prints
- On the table, there is a sledgehammer and an axe, I take the sledgehammer
- I go back upstairs and all of the sudden, the male junkie killed the woman
- The junkie starts chasing after me with a big knife
- I smash him with the sledgehammer for five times and then he dies
- The balcony door opens and a businessman comes inside
- He starts talking calmly to me, but then takes out a hammer and hits me with it
- Dodge him and hit him with the sledgehammer, he's still breathing
- He tells me that there are others in the house and dies
- I black out and wake up downstairs, it's filled with zombie-like people
- I hear a loud male voice reading a poem
- The poem is about a large tree, resurrecting the dead and hanging people
- The zombie-like things notice me and start walking towards me
- I panic and faint and the dream ends

Sorry, but I just wanted to get it out there if someone does know a game like that. I'm really almost sure that there is a game for the Xbox like that. Or at least something similar. I've been thinking about it for weeks.

Either that or I have a really strange imagination.

[STM]

Maybe it's a precursor for events to come.

[Sekto Springs]

Name me a scarier game. Any example is fine.

I would cite the Silent Hill games. Back when Silent Hill was fresh and allegorical, not the awful, Mario-style franchise it's become. Back when Pyramid Head was a bad ass, and wasn't just Konami's avatar.

Amnesia does have the benefit of being in first person, which makes everything scarier.

The Condemned games are pretty scary, but I would chalk that up to the realism of the graphics, not necessarily the atmosphere. I heard the game Penumbra is pretty scary, but I haven't had a chance to play it. I get the impression I'll be underwhelmed.

[STM]

Resident Evil 2, fucking crows make me jump even now. It's the bloody music.


Horrible horrible voice acting though. Horrible.

[Sekto Springs]

Everything in Resident Evil is horrible.
The voice acting, the writing, the characters. Someone told me they did that on purpose, to give it a more "pulpy" feel, but I don't understand why you'd go through so much trouble to make a game with universally acclaimed gameplay only to make it's characters so vapid and two-dimensional.

But I'm getting off-topic...

One thing that both frightens and fascinates me is deep-sea gigantism. Any massive, ocean creature. Strange how the things that I find most fascinating I also find the most terrifying. As much as I love Colossal Squid, I can think of no worse fate than being dragged by one of them into the black, crushing depths.

[OANST]

I occasionally get inexplicable night terrors that can be set off by any number of things. It's completely irrational, and quite irritating, but Marble Hornets was the last thing to set off my night terrors.

[STM]

I never minded the story of the first three, as I keep saying, I stand but that the first 3 are the only true 3 Resident Evil's.

[Mudokon_Master]

Speaking of dreams, the most horrifying experience for me are the realistic ones. I'm not talking about waking up, thinking it was real for a few seconds and realising it wasn't. Once I had a dream that I killed my own mother. It included guilt, worry, horror and all the consequences afterwards. In the dream, I desperately tried to hide the evidence and at the end, I went to sleep (somehow). When I awoke in real life, little did I know it was all a dream. I started panicking, crying etc. I went to the closet (where I hid her body in the dream) and it wasn't there. That's when I really lost it.
That's when I saw mum get out of bed and realised it wasn't real. Took me a while to recover though.

[MA]

sounds ridiculous, but unnaturally deep voices. as in, that's-not-fucking-human deep voices.

another thing that scares, no, terrifies me is not being able to stop something terrible happening to a loved one. just being in a state of paralysis, unable to do anything but watch. that absolutely horrifies me. honestly. i hate even thinking about it.

also, i've never really been afraid of death. i'm afraid of being in agony, because it fucking hurts (DURR HURR), but i'm not afraid of actually dying. my attitude is when it happens, it happens. i just hope when the time comes it's quick and not a prolonged, painful end.

dangling my feet over the edge of my bed when the lights are out.

not even fucking kidding here

you know, i still get that now. i never have my feet hanging over the edge of the bed. dunno if it's because i'm genuinely fearful or just out of habit, all i know is that i don't want to.

[OddjobAbe]

From being a kid, I could never dangle any limb over the bed. I've never been scared of anything actually attacking me, but the exposed, vulnerable feeling I get makes me uncomfortable.

Sleep is a constant problem for me, as I am one of those who are fortunate enough to experience sleep-paralysis on a semi-regular basis. Every time I put my head down, I am reluctant to sleep, because it's likely I'll "wake up" paralysed, and there's no feeling worse in the fucking world.
In fact, it happened last night, and I didn't feel like I could breathe at all. Couldn't move my legs or anything, and I was really uncomfortable.

[STM]

Sleep paralysis is by far the most scary thing that happened to me this year. Truly mortifying.

[OddjobAbe]

The worst ones are the episodes where you feel like you can talk, and you're telling somebody to wake you up, and they just aren't responding. They are fucking horrible.

[STM]

Mhmm, the same time I felt someone pinning me down and the only way I could get 'him' off was by physically screaming out.

[Jordan]

I've stopped having major paralysis, and I have no idea why. It makes it more haunting because I think it's gone, but if it came back I'd be in for a shock. Last time, a few days ago I was lying on my stomach and it felt as if I was going to suffocate if I didn't wake up. Those are so horrible.

[Taco]

Sleep paralysis is by far the most scary thing that happened to me this year. Truly mortifying.

I've only experienced sleep paralysis once before but it is pretty horrible. The worst thing about it is the feeling of not being able to speak or even open your mouth. But even worse are these fuckin things: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._23_Jan_11.JPG

That and the way there's always one waiting near my front door every time I get home late and it's dark and warm outside..

[MeechMunchie]

I would cite the Silent Hill games. Back when Silent Hill was fresh and allegorical, not the awful, Mario-style franchise it's become. Back when Pyramid Head was a bad ass, and wasn't just Konami's avatar.

The Condemned games are pretty scary, but I would chalk that up to the realism of the graphics, not necessarily the atmosphere. I heard the game Penumbra is pretty scary, but I haven't had a chance to play it. I get the impression I'll be underwhelmed.

Huh. Well, never played either of those so I'll take your word for it.

Apart from Amnesia, the only games that have scared me are Call of Cthulhu (which was more of a heart-pounding panic than creeping dread) and Broken Dimensions (of which I'm not entirely sure why I find it so creepy).

[MA]

The Suffering freaked me out. that was a good game, actually.

[Mudokon_Master]

Silent Hill was pretty scary, but in my opinion, not as bad as Amnesia. The feel of helplessness and complete vulnerability just fucks me over. But that's just my opinion. And I'ven't played Condemned but it looks pretty creepy.

[Sekto Springs]

I've heard that the Fatal Frame games are pretty terrifying as well. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled by next gen graphics, so I don't feel the icy grip of fear that I once did when I revisit those older horror games.

The feel of helplessness and complete vulnerability just fucks me over. But that's just my opinion. And I'ven't played Condemned but it looks pretty creepy.

Absolutely. But bear in mind that Silent Hill was (for the most part) the first franchise to introduce helplessness into the equation. You play Joe Everyman, no combat training, fending off unholy anathemas with only whatever shit you happen to find lying around.

Of course they fucked this up the second they introduced characters with military and arms training to the series. I actually think the latest release was just a free-for-all shoot 'em up. Ugh.

The Suffering freaked me out. that was a good game, actually.

I also liked The Suffering, but it too has lost much of it's original potency. I think that game's major appeal to me was the creature design.

[MeechMunchie]

You can play or download Broken Dimensions here, if anyone cares.

[Wings of Fire]

I've heard that the Fatal Frame games are pretty terrifying as well.

Especially the second one, which is an escort mission for half the game and does it so damn well.

[Manco]

I've heard that the Fatal Frame games are pretty terrifying as well. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled by next gen graphics, so I don't feel the icy grip of fear that I once did when I revisit those older horror games.

Me and a few friends stumbled through the first hour or so of one of those games. As a group we were mostly not scared, but a couple of moments still weirded us out. I imagine playing it alone would fuck you up big time.

[Sekto Springs]

Playing horror games with friends totally ruins it. Even if they remain totally silent, the tension and paranoia you feel playing it alone is absent. It also helps to play it on a big screen TV with the volume way up, in an empty house with all of the lights off. That's how I played through the Silent Hill and Condemned games, and lemme tell ya, I did not sleep those nights.

[Mr.Spandexpants]

One game that freaked me out was Limbo. I have played it a couple of times at my friends house. Be it the children that are apparently trying to kill you and the nonchalant way the boy just pushes corpses around, the game creeps me out.

Off games, ever since I watched Shaun of the Dead I have been afraid of zombies. For a few months I wasn't able to sleep alone in my room. During the day I would always conjure up plans for survival. I couldn't walk home from school because I was scared that a zombie would pop up around the corner and attack me. If I ever stayed awake past everyone else going to bed, I would lie in bed and not be able to get to sleep, because I would jump at every noise, and I was boiling hot because I would wrap myself in a thick blanket in the middle of summer because I was too afraid to expose myself. I eventually desensitized myself by watching playthroughs of Dead Rising Two, and playing Black Ops Zombies.

[Mudokon_Master]

ever since I watched Shaun of the Dead I have been afraid of zombies.

Shaun of the Dead has to be one of the funniest movies I've seen. It's not intended to be scary.

[Mr. Bungle]

Frogs. Fucking frogs, man. Scare the shit out of me.

[Daxter King]

Frogs. Fucking frogs, man. Scare the shit out of me.

This, somewhat. Im not one of those people that usually finds animals gross or icky or whatever, but fucking frogs man. I dont know, they just freak me the fuck out. Me and some friends made a fire earlier(dont worry, not at a school this time) and when we were grabbing the kindling, I just imagined a frog hiding in a bunch of twigs or grass and me grabbing it. Disgusting.

[Sekto Springs]

Frogs. Fucking frogs, man. Scare the shit out of me.

This should fix that.

[Mr.Spandexpants]

Shaun of the Dead has to be one of the funniest movies I've seen. It's not intended to be scary.

Everyone says that. But that does not change the fact that there are zombies. It wasn't the movie that scared me, it was the zombies. But I do agree that was a hell funny movie.